The Missouri governor still controls the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners, but he is not having an easy job keeping the seats full.
Earlier this week, former Judge Michael Calvin advised Governor Jay Nixon that he wished to have his name withdrawn from consideration for the police board.
“That request was made due to personal reasons wholly unrelated to any tax issues, all of which have been resolved for some period of time,” Scott Holste, Nixon’s press secretary, told The American.
The Post-Dispatch had reported on some old unpaid tax issues after Calvin’s appointment.
Holste said the “governor now will focus on appointing another well-qualified person to the police board.”
There currently are two open seats on the five-member board, which consists of four gubernatorial appointees and the mayor. Julius K. Hunter’s term expired in January and Vincent J. Bommarito resigned in February amid scandal that he intervened in the arrest of a nephew.
Dr. Michael Gerdine, a chiropractor, has been appointed but not confirmed. Had Gerdine and Calvin both been confirmed, it would have marked the first time a majority of appointees to the board were African-American. Nixon’s most recent appointee, attorney Battye Battle-Turner, is black.
There have previously been African-American board majorities when St. Louis’ two black mayors, Freeman Bosley Jr. and then Clarence Harmon, served on the board while each was mayor.